grandson ''A Modern Tragedy Vol. 1'' (2018)

Since I've been getting into the groove of writing these album reviews it's about time to tackle one of my all time favourite artists, grandson. I discovered this EP not too long after it's release and since then I must've played it hundreds of times. With startling aggression and frustration pointed at the continuous recklessness and corruption in the many systems that guide how society in America works grandson delivers some shocking and electrifying lines. This EP was grandsons first uniform experience with writing music, he's brought out multiple singles in the form of Bills, Bury Me Face Down, Kiss Bang.. Etc. 

Ditching some but not all of the powerful Alt Rock sound he's created in the singles before the release of A Modern Tragedy Vol. 1 grandson embraces some Trap music, something I haven't been super fond of, grandson does it just right though. Shill cries, wondrous attitude, dark metaphors and massive hooks combined with unique drops, grandson and his guitarist and drummer do it all. grandson is one of those artists who isn't afraid to talk and sing about all the horrifying reality going on in the world which is something I adore, with tracks like Blood // Water which talk about all the political corruption in America, or Stick Up which screams at the gun violence going on. Despicable is a track which grandson himself has described as ''a ballad of self loathing'', a daunting track with gentle guitar crashing into a huge drop later on in the song, again utilising grandsons vocal chords. 6:00 a haunting track with explosive guitar taking the front spot, heavy riffs droning on as grandson tears himself up over police brutality, a song released in 2018 mainly focused around unjust killing of civilians. And last but not least we have Overdose, a track that ties the entire EP together with grandsons ghastly vibe, powerful messages and drops like dynamite. 

This Ep is a perfect showing of what grandson is about, from singing and making music about what needs to be said to a lot of personal frustration making this sound possible, grandson really knows how to capture a vibe. The aggression is something that fascinated me a lot when listening to this the first time, it told me to be weary, that this isn't just music created to become mainstream, it's reality. All in all this first EP was a great opening to show everyone what's to come in the future.

9/10

 Feed Me Jack ''Chumpfrey'' (2012)

This was one of the first records and bands I've been introduced to by a good online friend of mine (you know who you are :D), originally the Math Rock or Prog Rock feel and poppy influences on the album were a bit overwhelming, but since my first listen more than half a year ago I've really grown on this genre and more specifically this set of songs. One of my few complaints on this album, the songs don't connect or flow with each other too well, the sound is there and individually I love all of these songs, the record just lacks cohesiveness, there are tons of fun quirks to find and discover on this record though. Speaking of quirks, after doing a tiny bit of research before writing this I've found this debut album was actually released in 2012 and not 2015 like Spotify tells us.

Wonderful, jazzy, groovy, Indie band is what you might think listening to this record, but that description is informative at best and very underwhelming to anyone who has listened to it before. With smooth basslines and twinkly percussive work laying a good and supportive background to push the infectious clean electric guitar forward this band knows what they're doing with their dynamic. With melodic picking, tapping and rhythmic phrases the guitar takes the front spot, bass and drums aren't the only thing supporting it though, we can't forget about the 3 man harmonics and singing, with slightly mismatched voices it sounds hard to believe that they could produce something so magical, yet they know how to perfectly play off of each other, creating some incredibly catchy hooks.

Undermining the genius song writing isn't something we should do either, these lyrics play off of the jazz like feel really well, but apart from lyrics they create some impressive and immersive textures of pin point rhythmic changes for you to lose yourself in. This record isn't all mystifying, complex musical work though, we get given a good amount of slower paced, less note filled spacious time too, often accompanied by soft waves of synths and more simple percussions and guitar picking. The main thing making all these songs special is their unique quirks, Rosies gets given a funky start with some keyboard notes, Until Then manages to catch one of the catchiest riffs, Jelly The Queen receives more funkiness in it's starting notes and outro. I would love to explain all of these but I simply don't have the time

10/10

Three Days Grace ''Human'' (2015)

With it's heavy Post Grunge guitar, drums blasting and gritty screams this record hit me back in 2019, discovering it shortly after falling in love with Starset's Transmissions, It felt a bit bare, missing all the electronic quirks that made Transmissions so special yet the energy and magic Human put on me wasn't anything short of what I'd gotten used to from Starset. 

Human hit me straight on with it's Post Grunge, Hard Rock aesthetics, utilising their heavy electric guitar, driving bass, crisp and carrying drums in amazing ways in the form of big crashes and fast riffs, the vocals are nothing to scoff at either, with gritty and raspy voices they produce some amazing and powerful screams that drive home their aggressive sound even further.

This record also knows how to give breaks, with a song like Car Crash we get to experience some more focus on the edgy lyrics I've grown to love from bands like these, they keep simple pickings on the guitar and give the drums a softer feel, the repeated kick drums almost feeling like heartbeats before jumping back into their heavy sound we've heard in all the songs before Car Crash further pushing the lyrics.

At 40 minutes in length this album manages to convey it's darker lyrics and tones perfectly, in 12 songs we touch on loads of topics like humanity, addiction, death and more, all heavy yet hopeful, this record is strangely motivating with it's powerful and meaningful singing. 

I can always come back to this band and more specifically this record, it's one that has grown with me over time, it's high energy always managing to keep my spirits and mood up.

7/10

Death From Above 1979 ''Outrage! IS Now'' (2017) 

On my first listens I quickly fell in love with individual songs by this band, their Dance Punk and Noise Rock feel, their gritty synths, screams and incredible noise produced from Jesse F. Keeler's bass guitar rig consisting of lots pedals and crazy tunings.

As an album Outrage! Is Now lacks some cohesiveness, but their almost DIY Dance Punk aesthetic makes it easy to groove along with these songs and their heavy riffs, aggressive drums and earnest screams. Yet some of these songs are really lacking in vital parts, the record starts of strong with the tracks Nomad and Freeze Me but until All I C Is U & Me I lose the magic those first songs give me, the pacing of these other tracks feels off, giving more attention to synths when this band's focus should be their unique and powerful sound, they just fall short.

The main thing most of these songs are missing is the continuous energy we get in the songs I listed above, Nomad, Freeze Me and All I C Is U & Me, they let their sounds drone through with drums adding some spice to form a nice sound that works along side the vocals to create a powerful combination. In a lot of the other songs like Never Swim Alone, Statues, NVR 4EVR and Holy Books, the strumming of the key component, the bass guitar noise machine is very repetitive with the vocals laid on top of it or riffs that don't integrate well with the vocals due to their energy being so mismatched.

Their sound has gone through a few changes throughout their start in 2001 - 2006 break up and get together in 2011 until now, and yet they don't stray too far from their Dance Punk and Hard Rock roots, in comparison to their 3 albums created before Outrage! Is Now they've become heavier and slower, ditching some of the instrumental quirks and generally refining their sound, a good change in my eyes.

All in all I don't have too much to say about this record but it's one I've wanted to think about and write about anyways, a few great individual songs you can really rock out to, but as an album it lacks some of the magic that I've grown so used to hearing.

6/10

 AJJ ''Christmas Island'' (2014)

With Sean's tragic voice an this band's Folk Punk sound consisting of acoustic guitar, bass, drums and some electronic keyboard tunes they manage to put pure emotion an nerdy yet fantastic lyrics into song. Getting this album recommended to me by someone online at 4 am a year ago made this a surreal listening experience.

AJJ was my first dabble into Folk Punk, this band utilises it's key components of acoustic guitar, bass, and drums masterfully, but in this album they've strayed a bit from their roots, experimenting around with more electric guitar and synthesizers than before which turned out better than anyone could have expected. Sounds building up and having it all come back down on top of Sean's lyrics or gentle guitar picking, drums for keeping track and adding a bit of spice with brushes instead of sticks, and synthesizers keeping a friendly swooning tone. 

The first song on this record immediately sets the tone for a large portion of this album with lyrics like ''Find a nicer way to kill it'' which is a mean and angry (yet still positive) take on Temple Grandin's (the person) work to strive for a more humane way of setting animals up for slaughter. This cynicism is heard throughout your time listening to these songs.

The lyricism on this album is nerdy and near perfect, classic AJJ. They often touch on topics like poverty, humanity, religion, addiction and politics. This 30 minute record is no exception of that, managing to check the box on quite a few of them.

All in all I can describe this record as nothing short of emotional, meaningful and almost tragic with it's distortion on the synthesizers, guitar, and drums, forming a solid background for Sean to perform his wonders. I could go on about individual songs for another 400 words but that's not what this is about.

9/10

 Weezer ''Weezer'' (1994)

For the first post on this Blog it's only appropriate I start with one of the first albums I listened in actual album form. Weezer's blue album was the first album I listened to that wasn't something young me had picked up on the radio in car rides with my mom, when getting this album recommended to me somewhere online I was very reluctant to listen to it, and rightfully so, the grungy electric guitar wasn't something you ever heard in the Alan Walker or Imagine Dragon songs I used to religiously listen to.

The blue album was Weezer's debut and also the high of their career, there now are fantastic individual tracks who rank a bit higher on total amount of listens or copies sold but overall the blue album is yet to be beat. The grunge electric guitar is amazing and the drums and riffs are kept quite simplistic with lyrics that are easy to follow which makes these songs so satisfying to listen to, I still get Buddy Holly stuck in my head occasionally.

The intense geekiness of Weezer and this album is very apparent in the album cover and lyrics, but the sound is a page straight out of Nirvana's book who Rivers was massively inspired by, yet the band made this their own album, with enormous hooks and incredibly catchy riffs, melodies and lyrics. 

Weezer has been constantly growing and developing their sound which is almost sad to see, you can see the numbers dwindling in comparison to their origins but I will not look at the blue album and think ''Oh we could have had more of this'' but instead I am happy that there is no album that's a straight repeat.

6/10